A 25-year-old man was physically OK when he was checked into the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex on Oct. 3, but Brandon Johnson was dead three days later after suffering a broken neck there, Assistant District Attorney Mark Williams said Monday during the first day of testimony in an unusual open-court John Doe criminal investigation.

Johnson also had multiple blood clots and suffered from a genetic condition that caused him to clot very easily, Williams said in his opening statement before Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Conen.

Johnson reportedly died from an embolism caused by the clots, though early testimony did not cover that point. He was picked up by police after a neighbor in the 4400 block of N. 55th St. complained that Johnson had rung his doorbell at 5:30 a.m. and was acting strangely. Johnson was asleep on the floor at his mother's house when police arrived around 6 a.m., but police returned after Johnson's mother called around 7 a.m.

"I have a sick son - I don't know what's going on with him, just come and get him," Alicia Johnson, Brandon Johnson's mother, was heard saying in a 911 call played in court. Brandon Johnson was wearing only a T-shirt and undershorts when he rang the neighbor's doorbell.

Though Johnson resisted going with police to the complex and was handcuffed and shackled, he didn't put up a fight, the officers said.

Johnson walked on his own when taken to the complex by Milwaukee police, four officers testified. And he "did not appear to be in distress immediately after a doctor examined him" at the complex, Williams said. Two nurses testified that Johnson appeared physically OK, and videotape played in court showed Johnson walking on his own when he was admitted.

Anne Hobinski, a triage nurse at the complex, said Johnson was angry about having been taken to the hospital the day he was admitted.

Johnson called for help from his room a few hours after he was checked into the complex, and nurses found him lying on the floor of his room and complaining that he needed to be taken to another hospital. He was examined by a doctor at the complex, who "said nothing was wrong," Williams said.

Over the next two days, Johnson complained repeatedly of paralysis in his legs, but a doctor who examined him determined Johnson had a psychosomatic condition rather than a physical injury, Williams said.

The medical examiner found that Johnson's seventh vertebra had broken as a result of "blunt-force trauma," Williams said.

Injured in fall

Johnson told a nursing assistant that he had injured himself in a fall, according to a federal inspection report. The report doesn't say how Johnson purportedly fell.

On the morning of Oct. 6, Johnson was brought to breakfast at the complex, but soon went unconscious and died.

The three days of testimony are aimed at finding out whether any actions or failure to act by Mental Health Complex personnel amounted to criminal negligence, Williams said. He did not immediately say whether he believed anyone was guilty of negligence.

Johnson's family, however, has accused staff at the complex of negligence that led to his death. They have filed a civil claim against the county, a first step toward a likely lawsuit, and are seeking unspecified monetary damages from the county.

In a John Doe proceeding, prosecutors ask witnesses questions under oath in an effort to build a possible criminal case. Normally such proceedings are done in secret, but Williams said this Doe was being done in public "so the public can see and judge for themselves what happened to Brandon."

Williams said last week a reason for the Doe was it's a forum in which testimony of doctors and nurses can be compelled. Medical personnel routinely refuse to disclose details of patient care, citing federal patient confidentiality laws.

Johnson's death led to several investigations of the Mental Health Complex, and federal inspectors issued a citation declaring patients there were in immediate jeopardy. That was lifted Nov. 2, based on a plan filed by county officials pledging to retrain staff and upgrade patient procedures.

State inspectors have visited the Mental Health Complex six times since December, and the county has not been notified of any further problems, according to Brendan Conway, a spokesman for County Executive Chris Abele.

Those visits were described as "routine monitoring visits," by Claire Smith, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health Services.

She said state inspectors have not yet conducted follow-up inspections regarding violations of state operating rules against the Mental Health Complex.

It was not immediately clear whether those state violations were linked to Johnson's case or any of the five other patient deaths at the Mental Health Complex last year.

In August the county complex was cited for deficient nursing services, including failure to monitor patient care needs, regarding the July 28 death of another patient. Paul Haugan, 57, died from complications of sleep apnea and morbid obesity, according to a medical examiner's report.

A state inspection report said Haugan was having trouble breathing and wasn't properly monitored by nurses.

About Steve Schultze

Schultze joined the Milwaukee Journal staff in 1985, covering state government and politics from the paper's state capitol bureau in Madison. He also served as Madison bureau chief for five years. Following the Journal-Sentinel merger in 1995, Schultze shifted to the paper's investigative/enterprise team, where he co-authored series on abusive teachers in the Milwaukee Public Schools, influence peddling in the administration of Gov. Tommy Thompson and shortcomings of a $3 billion regional sewer system upgrade. In 2007, he began covering Milwaukee County government. Schultze is a graduate of the University of Colorado School of Journalism.